Glenbard West earns state bid
One team achieved a major goal while another one fell just short.
Glenbard West scored 154.6 points to win Saturday evening’s Glenbard West sectional. The Hilltoppers advance to next weekend’s IHSA finals at Lincoln-Way East in Frankfort. It’ll be their first appearance since 2008 when they tied Lake Park for fifth place.
“When I took over in 2009, I think we were scoring 100 and that was when this group of seniors were freshmen,” Glenbard West coach Frank Novakowski said. “They put in a lot of hard work and time to make it. They’re really excited and I’m proud of them.”
Freshman Alex Diab wasn’t a part of the program in 2009, but he is now and he dominated Saturday. Diab won all six events. His lowest score was a 9.2 on high bar, while his most notable was his meet-ending 9.9 on floor. He finished with a 57.45 in the all-around, 11 points better than the 46.45 posted by Conant’s Brian Reedy.
“I left like I had a good meet today. It wasn’t my best, but I had a good performance,” Diab said. “That was my best floor routine this year. It was just cleaner than before and I was more confident.”
The Hilltoppers surrounded Diab with several significant scores. P.J. McCloskey took third on parallel bars with an 8.95 and fifth on floor with an 8.9, and Perry Zumbrook was third on vault with a 9.15 and fourth on parallel bars with an 8.55. The team also had three important sixth-place finishes from Michael Bonokollie on pommel horse, Charlie Kummerer on still rings and Cory Wilfong on high bar.
“One of our key mottos is, ‘When someone falls down pick them back up,’” Zumbrook said. “We’ve been following that motto all season. This is an exciting day for us. We’ve been prepping for it all year.”
Conant, which on paper appeared to be in the running for one of the three at-large team qualifiers, came up just short with 147.3 points. The Cougars needed to reach the 147.6 scored by Glenbrook North during Friday’s Downers Grove North sectional. The other two at-large teams are Mundelein (150.4) and Hinsdale Central (147.8).
“We obviously had a good meet with a season high so the guys did an awesome job,” Conant coach Paul Kim. “The majority of the team is still going, but I feel bad for the guys who didn’t make it because they worked so hard and we wanted to be there as an entire team.”
Nicholas Overby, Philip Schorsch and Blake Rossdeutcher finished in the top five on pommel horse for the Cougars. The team had several second-place finishes as well, as Joe Mauk had an 8.5 on still rings and 9.35 on parallel bars, Reedy had an 8.5 on high bar and Thomas Palm totaled a 9.35 on floor.
Prospect took a distant third with a 128.5. Junior Chris Klein took third in the all-around with a 45.05 to pace the Knights.
“I was a little sketchy on p-bars and horse but overall did pretty well,” Klein said. “We had a better meet than usual so that was good.”
Fenton’s Eric Owusu was fourth in the all-around with a 44.1, and Glenbard South’s Eli Qahhaar was fifth with a 42.5.
“It was a pretty big surprise because I’ve never won an all-around award before,” Qahhaar said. I had a great vault and my floor was pretty good.”
Addison Trail took fourth with a 127.8 and was followed by Glenbard South, Fenton, Elk Grove, Glenbard East and Rolling Meadows.